Perfect Parfait: Strawberry Pistachio Frozen Parfait

What a treat on a hot, sweltering day. I am an ice-cream girl throughout the year. But I especially enjoy them in the summer. In the summer, that's when the Farmer's Markets display their colorful bounties on display. Each stall is simply bursting with fresh ripe fruit and berries. All screaming at me to take them home and with a wave of my wooden spoon and a buzz of my ice-cream maker to turn them into gorgeous, cool desserts.

I tell you it is a tough decision. Apricots, peaches, mangoes, figs or berries - I really have to pull my inner brakes on my imagination. My brain is already in 6th gear, making up all kinds of desserts and I am panicking because I cannot buy my ingredients as fast!

Finally, my eyes caught a glimpse of perfect strawberries. Baskets and baskets - all lined neatly in several rows, creating a vivid sea of red. Oh and the aroma was heavenly - the pure sweetness that lingered in the air was addicting. No wonder I came back with about 2 large baskets.

It was the week I had my birthday. I was busy planning a few little get-togethers and making several desserts. On the weekend I ended the party week marathon with a big barbeque dinner and this simply perfect parfait. As it had been an extremely hot and sunny week I think I hit all the right notes with this dessert. The strawberries were put to perfect use. Initially I had planned on putting my ice cream maker to use to make a creamy ice cream. I was probably still on the sugar shock I was suffering from that week and my adrenaline was on it's all time high. I felt like making a more elegant version of strawberry ice-cream.

Pistachios add a delicious crunch and pureed strawberries lend their heavenly aroma to this dessert. It's creamy, it's nutty, it's fruity and it's frozen. What more could you ask for?

Dry roast the pistachios in a pan. Remove from heat. In the same pan add 4 tablespoons water and sugar and allow to caramelize. Once the caramel turns a gorgeous amber color add the roasted pistachios and stir to coat with the caramel.

Quickly turn out the pistachios on the baking sheet and allow to cool. Finally, coarsely chop the pistachio brittle.

Puree 500g strawberries using a pureeing machine. The consistency of the puree is entirely up to you. I prefer to have large strawberry bits in the parfait, not only because it looks nice but tastes great. Stir in 30g of icing sugar.

Place a mixing bowl on a pot of boiling water to create a water bath. With and electric hand mixer, whisk the eggs and the remaining 70g icing sugar into a thick, creamy mixture. Remove from the water bath and allow to cool for 5 minutes.

In a clean bowl, beat the cream with the vanilla sugar until stiff.

First pour in the strawberry puree into the egg mixture, followed by the pistachio brittle and finally fold in the cream.

Line a rectangle cake form with a large freezer bag cut to fit the form. Pour in the parfait mixture and allow to freeze overnight.

On the day you plan to serve the parfait, take out of the refrigerator and allow to sit for a few minutes. The tip it onto a chopping board, removing the plastic bag. Cut into slices and serve arranged with sliced fresh strawberries and optionally a few mint leaves.

Verdict

Fancy ice-cream I admit but worth the effort. My guests all had double portions, I think I myself had three!! It's just different than strawberry ice-cream because a frozen parfait is - well the elegant sister of the strawberry ice cream. The pistachio brittle are a nice crunchy surprise giving the cool, smooth parfait another texture. C'est parfait!

41 comments:

beautiful post, Meeta! The abundance of strawberries is one of the reasons why I absolutely love summertime! That and the fact that I'm not constantly covered in winter clothes and buried in snow. ps. the bowl you used to hold your strawberries in the first photo looks really cool! where's it from?

Happy Birthday Meeta! I must have known somehow, because I had a dream about you last night. You moved to FL and invited Roberto and I to dinner and I was so excited because I knew it would be great and I was so thrilled for you and Roberto to meet so you could talk photography! LOL!

i thought pistachios? meh. but then i kept looking at your photos and i was like, oh my, i need to try this! what a great dessert. do you know if your "icing sugar" is the same thing as our "confectioner's sugar" (which we use to make icing??)

Thank you for visiting What's For Lunch, Honey? and taking time to browse through my recipes, listen to my ramblings and enjoy my photographs. I appreciate all your comments, feedback and input. I will answer your questions to my best knowledge and respond to your comments as soon as possible.

In the meantime I hope you enjoy your stay here and that I was able to make this an experience for your senses.

Hello, I am Meeta a freelance food photographer, stylist and writer living in the cuturally rich city of Weimar, Germany with my husband and our son, where I enjoy preparing multi-cultural home cooked meals with fresh organic ingredients. What's for lunch, Honey? is my award winning food blog where I combine my love for food with my love for photography and styling...